Today we have Nicholas Bridgman on the blog for a guest post that gives us a flavour of his novel A Character In Reality. Over to you, Nicholas!
Detective Gladstone looked around, but his surroundings did not look anything like his San Francisco apartment. All he could see was lines and lines of text, columns, menus, and the words “Liberty Falls Down” at the top of the screen. So he did what he usually did when things around him looked unusual, he addressed the narrator and asked, “What’s this text I’m in here?”
“You’re in a literary blog,” the narrator said. “This is where bloggers—that is, electronic journal writers—write their feelings about literature, reviews, guest posts, that kind of thing.”
“So how did you put me in this blog?”
“Just like I put you in my novel: the power of the pen, or more accurately, the computer. When I want you to show up I just write you in.”
“I see a lot of posts here about fantasy and paranormal fiction. How does that relate to me?”
“Ha, I guess you wouldn’t see that, would you? Your whole concept is fictional, it belongs to the imagination and that alone. No one would seriously believe a character could become real—and yet, here you are, in my stories. That’s what makes it a fantasy, you’re not real, you just appear real when people read about you.”
“I really don’t like you, you know that? You’re so negative. What about my life, my potential?”
“Your potential is to help people, entertain people, and inspire people. Although you are not real, your fictional presence in the world enriches people’s lives. The world is better for having read of you. I know that’s not much consolation for your not being real though.”
“It’s not, but I guess as a lowly character, I have to take what I can get.”
“You’re not lowly at all. Lots of people will read about you, if they buy Nicholas Bridgman’s novel, A Character in Reality. It documents your life, and how you adjust to becoming a real person. How you face down anti-illegal immigrant protesters, people who think fictional characters belong in fiction, not in reality. How you ultimately claim your place in the real world. Of course, that in itself is just fiction too, written by Bridgman. But when readers read it, who knows what will happen? Maybe the characters will become real for them too, and the cycle will continue.”
To learn more about Bridgman’s novel, A Character in Reality, visit http://www.nicholasbridgman.com/#!a-character-in-reality/i1c9l
Liberty Falls Down 